Redemption Is Hell
by rachael-green-bakura
Summary: Bakura helps Ryo's dead sister, Amane, see him one last time. Pity for the tomb robber that Amane is not afraid of him or making fun of him. Tendershipping if you squint.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, or any of the characters. And if I did, I would never have sold it to 4Kids.

It's the first chapter, and it's pretty much the only thing I've ever written that I'm proud of when I reread it. But God knows how long that will last.

Yeah I was reading the sixth Harry Potter book the night before I wrote this, I got my inspiration for Bakura's crappy house from that book. He lives in the House of Gaunt, just, y'know, crappier. Also, he doesn't have a snake nailed to the door. Or maybe he does. I think he would think of that as an insult to Diabound. Whatever, if you want a snake on the door, visualize a snake on the door. He's never coming back to this house for the rest of the fanfic, so I don't really care.

Chapter 1

Bakura sighed and rolled over onto his back. He vainly attempted to sleep on the hard stone beneath him. Zorc had always favored the thief, and he had been allowed lodgings by the demon for his frequent overnight trips to the Shadow Realm. After the pharaoh defeated the demon, Zorc had taken his rage out on Bakura's home, for lack of a better word. The building was now a one-room hut. The walls and furniture were made entirely out of stone. There was no floor. The roof shingles were cracked, and some had already fallen out. The two windows were small and blackened with grime. The entire house was filthy, not that the occupant cared. He had lost count of how many days he had been in the Shadow Realm, and the house just got dirtier every day.

Bakura lay topless on the "bed". He guessed that he had been here a little over a year. Around three months after he had been trapped here, a nagging in his subconscious told him it was September second. That day he had silently wished his old hikari a happy birthday, but many months had passed since then. Bakura shivered. He remembered when he had lost to Marik at Battle City. Both he and Ryo had been sent here. After Ryo had stopped spazzing out, they had come here. Bakura's house was nicer back then, but there was still only one bed. They had slept together, Bakura staying up and holding the smaller boy close so that his hikari would feel safer as he slept. Bakura shivered again, missing the warmth his hikari had given his that night.

Bakura heard a crack above him. _Great,_ he thought. _There goes another shingle._ Without opening his eyes, he rolled onto his left side, what he thought was away from away from the imminent falling shingle. He flinched when he learned that he had rolled to the wrong side and the broken shingle hit his right shoulder, the edge cutting into the bare flesh. _Damn,_ he thought. He placed his hand over the wound, grimacing at the blood on his palm when he pulled away. _Damn._

The thief got up and walked barefoot to the only other piece of furniture: a stone sink. He knew that the water was dirty, too, but it was cleaner than that shingle and he knew he should at the very least try to clean the cut. He turned on the water and splashed some on his shoulder, gritting his teeth as it stung the wound.

When he though it was as clean as it was going to get, Bakura turned back to the stone slab that was his bed. He cleared the debris from the shingle from his bed and lay back down. He let his left arm go limp over his face, hiding his eyes in the crook of his elbow. Vaguely, he wondered how everything could get so filthy, since dirt and dust and mold and such weren't supposed to exist here in the Shadow Realm. Just as he got as comfortable as he could, he heard footsteps outside. After the footsteps had stopped and the thief thought whoever it was had gone, there was a knock at the door. _Damn!_ he thought for the third time. He reluctantly got up and went over to open the door for the unwelcome visitor.

Bakura was surprised to say the least when he saw the tall man with spiky, tricolored hair that he loathed so much on his doorstep. He narrowed his eyes at the former pharaoh.

"What the hell do you want?" he growled, his voice hoarse from lack of use.

"Nice to see you, too," replied Yami, rolling his eyes.

"Fuck you."

"Now, now, you couldn't have missed me that much. Besides, you know that Yugi is the only one that I'd allow to do that," said Yami, his eyes laughing.

Bakura growled low in his throat like an animal. "You still haven't answered my question. What the hell are you doing here? I thought you'd've been reborn already."

"Well, it turns out we chose a very inconvenient time to die. The line for Judgments was enormous! I've only just had mine, after a year of waiting; you know how every soul has to be Judged before it can move on—"

Bakura tuned out the rambling pharaoh. _So I_ have _been here a year,_ he thought.

"—and he told me where to find you and to come and fetch you, because your Judgment is next."

"What!?" That brought Bakura back to his senses. _Great,_ he thought bitterly. _Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, Pharaoh Righteous-Ass shows up to tell me to come and be sentenced to Hell._

"I said that your Judgment is n—"

"No, no, don't say it again! Shit!"

"Well, are you going to come with me or not?"

"I suppose I might as well." Bakura grumbled and went back inside to grab his shirt.

There was a pause while Bakura pulled his blue-and-white striped shirt over his head. Then: "By the way, tomb robber, your shoulder's bleeding!"

"I noticed," Bakura growled, pulling his dirty, long, white hair out from under his collar.

Bakura followed Yami out the open door, not bothering to close it behind him. He had walked the "streets" of the Shadow Realm on his own almost every day. He sometimes saw his victims wandering around, too. Once, he had seen that zombie boy, Bonz, and his lackeys. He had seen those bug and dinosaur freaks, Haga and Ryuzaki, a few times. He had even met up with Marik a few times, where they had bonded over their mutual love of causing as much panic as they could. After knowing Anzu, he hated using the f word if he could help it, but he had to admit it. Marik was Bakura's best friend.

"Fuck," said Bakura.

"What?"

"Nothing." Bakura made a point of saying the real f word every time he said or thought the f-r-i-e-n-d word.

"Heeeeeeeey! Fluffy!" called a voice behind them. Speak of the devil and the devil appears.

"I told you not to call me that, Marik," sighed Bakura without turning around.

"Sorry, 'Kura," said Marik, catching up to the two. "But your hair is just so fluffy."

"At least my hair doesn't frighten small children! And _me,_ for that matter!" It was true; Marik's hair has given Bakura spaz attacks when he saw it too early in the morning.

Marik ran a hand through his spiky sand-colored locks, but otherwise ignored the comment. "By the way, I think I found Ryo's toaster." Marik held out what looked like a brand new toaster.

"Oh, yeah!" Bakura's expression brightened as he remembered the machine. "I sent this to the Shadow Realm when it burnt my toast!" He smiled as he remembered how his hikari had barged into his soul room, demanding to know what had happened to his new toaster. He hugged the toaster to his chest. "Now the only piece of Hikari's kitchen we need to find is the blender."

Yami eyed Bakura hugging the toaster. "If you start making out with that thing I'm leaving you here," he said, rolling his eyes. Bakura and Marik were suddenly reminded of his presence.

"So, 'Kura," said Marik. "Where are you going with Pharaoh Asshole?"

Bakura's good mood quickly vanished. "To my Judgment," he answered with a sigh.

Marik's face fell. "You mean you're not coming back here? You're leaving me all alone? But Bakura, I'm your best friend—"

"Fuck," interjected Bakura.

"—and I'm not dead so I don't get a Judgment yet and I'll be all alone here! Only the one who sends you to the Shadow Realm can let you out! When are you gonna let me out, Pharaoh?"

"When Hell has an ice cream stand," Yami answered nastily.

"Well, then, I'll be sure to set one up when I get there," said Bakura without expression. Marik smiled a little. Then, before Bakura knew what had happened, Marik had swept him into a tight hug.

"I'M GONNA MISS YOU!!" Marik cried.

"Augh! Marik, you bastard! Your hair is trying to bite me!" Bakura cried, just as loudly. His legs, dangling a foot off the ground, kicked uselessly. His arms were pinned to his sides by Marik's crushing embrace, with the toaster smashed between them. "I can't breathe, baka!"

Marik let him go. Bakura clutched his chest where the toaster had dug into it and gasped for air. "You're…an asshole…you know…that?" he gasped.

Bakura and Yami said goodbye to Marik. Bakura shoved Ryo's toaster into Marik's chest with a little more force than necessary, and reminded him to look out for the blender.

Bakura and Yami walked in silence the rest of the way. When they exited the Shadow Realm, Bakura let out an audible gasp, which Yami ignored. They were in a long, marble hallway. At their end was a purple door engraved with the Millennium Eye symbol, the door to the Shadow Realm, the door they had just come out of. At the other end of the hallway was an oak door, twice as tall as the others, bearing the same symbol. Along the left side of the hallway, seven pure white doors stood. Along the right side, seven bloodred doors. Bakura knew that each door led to a different level of Heaven and Hell. He gazed warily at the door closest to him, the door that he knew led to the seventh and worst level of Hell. Bakura didn't even notice Yami trying to get his attention until Yami grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the oak door.

"Hey! What the hell!?" he cried, trying to break Yami's surprisingly strong grip. It suddenly hit him how frightened he was. Zorc was angry at him for his failure in the Memory World, and if he were sent to Hell, he knew Zorc would torture him for all eternity.

Yami pushed the oak doors open with the hand that wasn't restraining Bakura. "It's time for your Judgment. I'm not allowed in. Good luck, tomb robber!" With that, he jerked Bakura forward, released his wrist, and pushed his back, forcing him into the room, all in one fluid movement. Bakura, thrown off balance by this, fell to his hands and knees inside the room.

"Aua! Yami, wait—!" he called, pushing himself back up.

But Yami had already shut the door and left.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own YuGiOh or any of the characters. If I did than I never would have sold it to 4Kids. Also Jacob and Peter and Sara are mine, as is the storyline.

Woot, Chapter 2! Hooray! *falls asleep* It's 12:33 AM, I started writing this at 5! That's how long it took to write this chapter, type it up on Word (evil program is evil) and put it here. Then agian, I was watching Treasure Planet for some of that time. I tried to multitask, but I paid more attention to the movie then the story and only wrote two pages while it was playing. What can I say, that's an awesome movie. Yeah, this chapter is a whole page longer than the last one, which makes it 10 pages in my notebook and 5 pages on Word. The last one was 9 and 4.

BTW, LeanMeanWaffle and I are hanging out together tomorrow, so I probably won't have time to get Chapter 3 up. Sorry...

Also, I love the line he told Ryo when they were in the Shadow Realm. It's like my favorite line. But then again, I'm a HUGE Tendershipper. They're sooo cute together!

Aside from YuGiOh, I'm also a huge Bleach fan. I got the idea for the bodies from the Gigais in Bleach. I suppose they are Gigais, but I wouldn't use that term. Gigai...heh, that's a funny word.

Chapter 2

Bakura gulped and turned away from the door. He was in a large, circular room. The walls looked like granite to Bakura, but he wasn't sure. There were tall white marble pillars around the entire room. There was a circular design on the floor of the room, all the lines of the design crossing and interlocking with each other. Bakura stood at one end of the design; three people stood on the other side.

Now, Bakura was very tall himself, but he had nothing on these three, even at a distance, Bakura could tell that they were almost twice as tall as he was, making them eleven or twelve feet tall. There were two men and a woman. All three were dressed in white robes with gold tassels. In the middle stood a man with shoulder length blond hair. He was clean shaven and had a kindly expression. The man on his right looked much sterner and had slightly shorter black hair, and a long black beard. The woman on the golden-haired man's left was stunningly beautiful. She had bright green eyes and sweeping auburn hair that went all the way down to her waist. She was smiling widely at Bakura, showing stunningly white teeth.

Bakura stood gawking at the three beautiful people. He noticed that his mouth was open and he closed it. He was suddenly very conscious of his matted hair and the blood staining the shoulder of his shirt. He ran a hand through his hair, as though hoping that would get some of the dirt out of it.

"Good day, Bakura," said the blond man in the middle. "My name is Jacob. These are my companions, Peter…" He gestured to the man on his right. "…and Sara." He gestured to the woman, who smiled wider.

Sara caught Bakura's eye. Bakura fought back a blush that threatened to creep onto his face. He didn't know why, but these people made him flustered and nervous. _Oh, yeah,_ he thought, _these people are going to tell me if I'm going to Hell or not._

Jacob's eyes drifted down to Bakura's shoulder. "Your shoulder is bleeding. Sara."

Sara drifted forward. It looked more like she was floating than walking. Bakura involuntarily took a step backwards as she approached. She tugged at Bakura's collar, exposing the deep wound. She ran her index finger along it, and Bakura let out an involuntary cry of pain as it felt like a white hot wire was pressed against his skin. When she pulled away, he looked down and gasped; there was no trace of the cut left, not even a scar.

Bakura just gaped at the unmarked skin. Sara let out a tinkley laugh and floated back to her fellows. Bakura let out a mumbled thanks (A/N Gasp!) and hitched his collar back up.

"Bakura," began Jacob.

"Yes, sir?" Bakura felt that it was in his best interest not to look like too much of an asshole in front of these people, despite the fact that he hated being polite. He also hated the fact that his voice sounded scared, almost squeaky.

"You are here for the Judgment of your soul. We will decide if you are destined for Heaven and rebirth…or Hell," Jacob continued. Bakura felt cold sweat trickle down his back at the last words. "Peter, if you will read the charges."

Peter stepped forward. "Bakura," he boomed in a loud and much less friendly voice. "You are guilty of lying, thievery, arson, grave defiling, torture, murder, and many others that I dare not speak. Do you deny these claims?"

"No, sir," the thief mumbled in that same scared voice, hanging his head. _This is it,_ he thought miserably. _I've had fun for the last three thousand years…and it's all finally catching up with me._

"However," said Sara in a honeyed, musical voice. "You have also shown your good side to someone. Rarely, and only to that person, but you have shown it nonetheless."

Bakura's head shot up in shock. His good side? He had shown compassion? Him? "Wha—? To who?" he questioned, dumbstruck.

"To Ryo," she answered with a smile. "I believe your exact words when the two of your were trapped in the Shadow Realm were 'Don't worry. I'll always be here to protect you. I'll _never_ let anything hurt you.'"

Bakura gaped. "Yeah, I did say that that night." He was pleased to hear that his voice had lost some of the fear, and was going back to his normal voice. He wondered how she had known what he had said word for word. It took him a few seconds to realize that she had started to speak again.

"It is this affection for Ryo that has caused us to present you with a choice. We will not lie to you. With a life like you lived, you would have been sentenced to level six of Hell. However, if you do a single task, you will be able to make up for all your past wrongs and be allowed into the seventh and lowest level of Heaven to be reborn."

Bakura gaped at the Goddess. He couldn't believe that all his sins could be forgiven with a single task. _It must be a very difficult or dangerous task,_ said a small voice in his subconscious. Bakura wet his lips and said slowly and carefully, "I'd like to know what the task is before I blindly accept it, ma'am."

Sara smiled but it was Jacob who spoke. "All pure, untainted souls who would have made it into the first level of Heaven are entitled to a single Farewell to a person of their choosing before being reborn. However, children under twelve years of age must have an escort by someone who knew the person they want to say Farewell to very well."

"Why are you telling me this? There's no way I'd be allowed a Farewell (not that there's anyone I'd want to say goodbye to anyway), so why bother?" asked Bakura, getting impatient.

"Are you aware that Ryo had a twin sister, Bakura?" asked Jacob.

"Well, yeah, he used to write letters to her. She died in a car accident…when she was seven…." Bakura trailed off, realization dawning on him. "You don't want me to be the girl's escort, do you?"

"Precisely," said Jacob. "I shall go fetch the girl. Peter, if you would fetch the…" Peter nodded and walked through a door Bakura had not noticed earlier before Jacob had finished. Jacob exited through the same door.

When they had both departed, Bakura turned to Sara and asked, "Why do I have to do this? Ryo's and the girl's mother died at the same time as her daughter, so why can't she do this? Or why can't we wait until their father kicks the bucket and have him do it?"

"The child's mother was reborn about a week after she arrived here," Sara answered sadly. "And she has already waited eleven years. Do you really want her to wait until her father dies? That could take fifty more years! That aside, Ryo's father is very distant to his son, and when he dies, Ryo will be as unfamiliar to him as the strangers he passes in the street. We did say that it had to be somebody close to the one receiving the Farewell."

Bakura bit his lower lip and looked down. _I don't want to go to Hell, but I don't like the idea of being responsible for a child either_.... Bakura heard a door close and he looked up. Jacob had returned, hand in hand with a wide-eyed little girl. She looked just like a female Ryo. Her white hair trailed to her mid-back, and while it was quite a bit neater than her brother's, her bangs looked exactly the same. Her brown eyes stared at Bakura with curiosity. Bakura grinned at her, showing off his sharp canines. The girl opened her mouth a little in surprise at the two larger-than-average teeth, and Bakura thought he saw he eyes darken in fear.

"Heh." _Well, the longer I can avoid Zorc the better. She's a seven year old girl, how much trouble can she be? What's more, she's related to Ryo. I'm not sure, but I think she's already afraid of me. And even if she isn't, I know where Ryo lives, so I can get it over with quickly._

Bakura looked up at Jacob. "Alright, I'm in. I'll do it. I'll take the kid to see Ryo."

Jacob smiled, and a look in his eyes told Bakura that he had known that this would be the thief's decision all along. He bent down to talk to the girl. "Sweetie, this is Mr. Bakura. He's agreed to escort you to say Farewell to your brother."

The girl's eyes widened even more and she turned to look at Bakura. "R-really?" she asked, as if fearing that the whole thing was a joke. When Bakura nodded, she squealed and said, "Oh, thank you, Mister Bakura! I'm Amane! I can't wait to see my brother again! Tell me, did you know Ryo very well? How is he?"

Bakura laughed quietly and rubbed a hand over the back of his head. "Yeah, I knew him pretty well. I think he might be mentally scarred slightly after knowing me, though. I haven't seen him in a year, though he was holding together pretty well when I last saw him."

Amane's eyes drifted to his shoulder. "Is that…_blood?_" she asked, staring at the stain on his shirt with wide eyes. Bakura laughed quietly again. Just because the wound was healed didn't mean the bloodstain was gone.

"Yeah, it is." He didn't mind if she was scared of him. In fact, he was kind of hoping for it. People were more likely to do as they're told if they're frightened. Which is why he was caught off guard when she asked, "Yours or someone else's?"

He turned his head to look at her so fast that he cricked his neck. Rubbing the side of his neck and swearing under his breath, he stammered, "M-mine." Amane giggled at him. "What's so funny?" he demanded, desperately trying to regain his dignity.

"Nothing," she giggled harder at him, much to the thief's annoyance.

Peter came back into the room, pushing a large table on wheels. On top of it lay two bodies. They could have been sleeping, if not for the fact that there was no movement from them, not even breathing. The smaller body looked identical to the girl who was now laughing at Bakura for hurting himself twice, wearing a plain blue dress like the one her giggling lookalike was wearing. Bakura let out a small gasp of horror as he saw that the other body looked just like him, wearing the blue-and-white striped shirt and white jeans that he was wearing now (without the bloodstain.)

"You will inhabit these while in that world," said Peter. "So that you can be seen by mortals."

"Are these…our old bodies?" Bakura asked, still unnerved at seeing a dead him on a table.

"No," answered Jacob. "But once your spirits are inside them, the only difference between them and your old bodies will be that they didn't come from a woman's womb."

Bakura thought hard for a minute. At last, he turned to Jacob and said "Alright, Jacob, right? I said that I would take this girl to my old hikari, and I still will…on two conditions."

Jacob raised his eyebrows, but nodded at him to continue.

"My first condition is that I don't want to be reborn when this is over. Childhood, puberty, life sucks. Why would I want to go through that again? Twice was enough. No, I want to remain in Domino in _that_ body when this is over and done with."

Jacob, Peter, and Sara exchanged glances. Then, all three nodded. "And your second condition?" asked Jacob.

Bakura glanced at the outfit his body was wearing and broke into a wide grin.

"I'd like a trenchcoat."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Bakura crouched on a hill in a park on the outskirts of Domino City. Jacob, Peter, and Sara had not been able to send him directly to Ryo, or even directly into the city. They had asked how it would look if two people teleported in out of nowhere, and Bakura had grudgingly admitted that they were right.

Bakura felt a tug on the hem of his black trenchcoat and looked down to see the big brown eyes of Amane looking him dead in the face. Bakura cried out in surprise at her face so close, lost his balance, and fell backwards on his ass. He pushed himself back into his original crouching position, trying to regain some of his dignity. "Yeah, you want something?" he asked the giggling child.

She stopped giggling and looked into his eyes again. "I just wanted to know, Mister Bakura, if we'd be seeing my brother very soon."

Bakura dusted his front off. "Okay, first of all, drop the 'Mister.' That sounds way too formal for my liking. I'm fine if you just call me 'Bakura.' If you really really want to stick a title on there, call me 'Thief King.' That was a title I was rather fond of...a few years back. And once we get into the city, I should be able to find your brother's house, don't worry."

She looked happier at this news. Then she asked him very seriously, "'Thief King Bakura'...you were a thief? But, I though thieves were supposed to be scary. You're not scary at all!"

Bakura glared at the child, angry and disappointed at the fact that she didn't find him as intimidating as he thought she did. "Yeah, back then I had very light fingers, and I still do—_ow!_"

Amane smacked him on the back of the head with surprising strength for a child her size. Bakura nearly lost his balance again and had to put his hands on the ground to steady himself. He wondered if it was a smart idea to try to balance on his toes with her around. "Didn't your parents ever tell you that it's not nice to steal?!" she demanded loudly.

"Didn't _your_ parents ever tell you that it's not nice to hit people?!" he demanded just as loudly, his temper rising.

Amane looked affronted at his retaliation. Clearly not having an answer, she changed the subject abruptly and, for Bakura, painfully. She reached out, grabbed the hair that lay in front of his shoulders, and pulled hard. Bakura really did lose his balance, falling forward on his hands and knees with a loud cry of "Motherfucker!"

"Your hair is soft and white and fluffy, just like the cat I used to have," said Amane, smiling sweetly and giving Bakura a look that he didn't like at all. "I know just what I'll call you, Baku. Fluffy! From now on, you're Fluffy Baku to me!"

Bakura growled low in his throat. She released his hair, and he stood up so that it was out of reach. _Fluffy Baku? Ra, she's just as bad as Marik._ But he had to admire her a little; not many people would have the guts to do something like that to him. He dusted his shoulders off and said casually, "Damn, girl, you've got more balls than Ryo does. Of course, that's not saying much, he was so fucking timid."

Amane slapped him on the thigh, unable to reach much else now that he was standing at full height. "Didn't your parents ever teach you that it isn't nice to swear?!"

Bakura, growing angry again, growled. "No, they didn't have a lot of opportunity, seeing as they both died when I was five!!" he screamed at the top of his voice, and he was grateful that the park was deserted.

Amane's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. She seemed shocked beyond words at this piece of information. Bakura was glad; he had intended to shut her up with that little fact. He growled again, this time in satisfaction, and grabbed her hand, pulling her into the city before the shock could wear off.

The two were in the heart of Domino when Amane found her tongue. She yanked her wrist out of Bakura's grip and said indignantly, "You didn't have to yell at me, you know."

"Yes, I did," Bakura growled, still in a bad mood. "You were pissing me off. When I get pissed, I yell and get violent. You're just lucky that you look like Ryo, I never hit my hikari. Hitting Ryo is the equivalent of hitting a kitten with a two-by-four with a nail in it. My conscience wouldn't let me live with myself if I hit someone who looked so much like him."

Amane paused, unsure how to take this. Then she simply stated, "You look like my brother, too, and you hurt yourself."

"That was unintentional!" Bakura yelled indignantly, knowing that she was referring to the blood she had seen on his shoulder.

They were silent for a time, both lost in their own thoughts. Amane was trying to think of what her brother would look like, now that he was eleven years older. Bakura was reminiscing as he passed familiar places, not focusing on where he was going, just letting his feet carry him.

It wasn't until he found himself in the alley where he had first met Malik that Bakura realized that he had been wandering in the opposite direction of Ryo's house. "Ra fucking damn it to hell!" he swore under his breath as he turned around.

"What is it, Fluffy Baku?" asked Amane innocently.

"We've been heading in the wrong direction. Ryo's house is on the other side of town," he growled, walking swiftly back the way they had come. Amane had to run to keep up with the thief's long strides.

"Wow, you're really stupid," she panted, running along directly behind him. "You're a bit of a baka. I know! Instead of Fluffy Baku, I'll call you Fluffy Baka!"

Bakura stopped dead. Amane plowed right into the back of his legs. "Look, kid," he snarled in a dangerously low voice. He turned around and crouched, putting him at eye level with Amane. He grabbed her shirt, forcing her to look him in the eye. Even though he couldn't use Shadow Magic without his Ring, his evil and angry aura was almost visible. Amane's eyes were round with sudden fear. "I don't even let my best fucking friend call me 'Fluffy' without hitting him with some form of heavy kitchen implement. What the hell makes you think that I'll let some little bitch that has done nothing but piss me off do it? You are going to call me 'Bakura.' Got it?"

Amane nodded. "Say it," Bakura demanded in that same dangerous voice.

"I got it, Bakura," she squeaked.

"Good." He released her. "And just to forewarn you, I'm guilty of murder. Annoy me too much and I'll do it again, regardless of how much you look like Hikari." He turned swiftly and continued walking, and Amane followed, her eyes dark in shock and fear.

Bakura approached his old hikari's house around two o'clock that afternoon in a relatively good mood. The knowledge that her companion was a murderer seemed to have shut Amane up quite nicely. True, she didn't seem afraid or even cautious anymore, but at least she was quiet.

"Stay here," Bakura ordered with so much authority in his voice that Amane didn't even question why.

Bakura walked up the path to the door and knocked. He laughed quietly as he thought of Ryo's reaction when he saw his old yami. It wasn't every day that your yami came back from the dead, and he hadn't exactly been Ryo's bestest buddy.

It was Ryo's father who answered the door, a beer bottle in one hand and an angry look on his face. "What the hell do you want?" he demanded, slurring slightly.

Bakura narrowed his eyes. He had never liked this man. True, he had never asked many questions and Bakura had been able to do what he liked without arousing suspicion. But he was very protective of his hikari, and the way this man treated Ryo appalled him. He had constantly heard their heated arguments all the way in his soul room, and the man had never seemed suspicious when Bakura was in control. Surely a father doing even a half-ass job of parenting would notice if their only son was acting completely different?

"I'm not here to talk to _you,_" Bakura said, unable to completely mask his hatred for the drunk in front of him. "I'm here to talk to Ryo."

The man's face contorted with rage. "Oh. _Him,_" he said with contempt and a very Bakura-like growl. "The boy's not here and he ain't coming back." He made to close the door, but Bakura stuck his foot in the way.

Bakura forced the door back open and growled, "What the hell do you mean 'he's not here and he ain't coming back'?"

"Psh! We got into an argument about something or other, can't remember what, too much booze. Anyways, he was screaming shit about me being the worst father ever and that I should go die in a hole with Anzu. So I smacked him across the face really hard. He grabbed his checkbook and ran out and bought one of those empty single homes in the next neighborhood. Crashed at a friend's house (_Fuck,_ thought Bakura) till he could move in. Returned to get his stuff and left without a word. Not that I care, the ungrateful little bas—urk!"

Bakura held tightly to the front of the man's shirt, forcing his back against the doorframe. With his free hand, he pulled out a switchblade and held it to the man's throat. "Do you mean to tell me," he snarled, his voice barely above a whisper, "that your son, your own flesh and blood, your _only living relative_ walked out on you and you didn't even bother to get so much as a fucking phone number?"

"Like hell! I hope that little fuckface never darkens my doorstep again, he's done nothing but make my life hell ever since he was bor—AAAUGH!!" He was cut off by his own scream of pain, for Bakura's knife was now lodged in his left shoulder.

"No. _You're_ the one who's made _Ryo's_ life hell since the day he was born," Bakura said, his voice more of a growl than a human voice. He was seeing red and almost trembling with rage. "You've done nothing but insult and abuse him since he could walk. I don't take kindly to _anyone_ doing that to my hikari. I will punish the people who do and protect him with my life. I was going to let you live because you brought him into this world, for which I'm grateful. But you're doing a damn good job of changing my mind." Bakura twisted the blade and yanked it out. "And if you're still confused about why you deserved that, then you're even more pathetic than I thought."

Bakura started to walk away. Then he remember the time the bleeding man had thrown a beer bottle at Ryo and it hit before Bakura could intervene and catch it, ran back, kicked him in the fork of the legs, and slammed the door, taking care to hit the man with it as it closed.

_Ra damn shit bitch motherfucking bitch!_ he thought. _Of all the times for my hikari to grow a spine! Now what am I going to do? I've got no leads! How am I going to find Ryo now?_

I do not own YuGiOh or any of the characters, and if I did then I never would've sold it to 4kids.

Bakura growls a lot, now that I reread this.

0.0 Wow he REALLY doesn't like being called Fluffy. I guess I got a little carried away with the I-Want-To-Make-Bakura-Flip-Out scene.

I loved writing Ryo's father, he was really fun! Writing a jerkoff alcoholic is actually quite amusing. But then again, he really shouldn't have said he hit Ryo in front of Bakura, that's always a mistake. The reason 'Kura reacted like that was because he was already pissed at Amane but he couldn't take out his anger on a 7 year old girl...or something. I think I just wanted him to stab something.

All in all, I loved writing this chapter, it's my favorite. I thought of the scene with the father first. However, typing this up would have been easier if I could read my own writing. My God, I write like a third grader. Also "Ra fucking damn it to hell" and "Ra damn shit bitch motherfucking bitch" are my phrases, I say them all the time. And don't worry. Amane hasn't just given up and will start calling him 'Bakura'. I have a much better nickname for him up my sleeve for the next chapter


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Bakura wandered aimlessly around Domino, unsure of what to do now. He thought that he was finally free and that this task was over. He had never liked being wrong. The thief looked over his shoulder at Amane. She had been unusually quiet and looked on the verge of tears.

She noticed Bakura watching her and asked with a slight waver in her voice, "So how are we gonna find my brother, Baka-ra?"

Bakura sighed. "I don't know, ki—what the _hell_ did you just call me?"

"Baka-ra. You told me I can't call you 'Fluffy' anymore, but I still think you're a baka. Baku sounds like baka," she said in a flat, expressionless voice.

"And what the hell makes you think I'll let you…" Bakura trailed off at the depressed look on her face. "That's pretty creative. Good job." He didn't have the heart to yell at her. While he was sure that she hadn't heard his whispered threats, her father had been talking loudly enough for her to at least figure out that it would take a lot longer for her to finally get to see her brother. He would let her have her fun with her cute little nickname. For now anyway.

"Why did you stab Daddy?" she asked.

"Because he deserved it," Bakura answered simply. "He was always giving Hikari hell. He hit my hikari. Big mistake. Then he told me he had hurt my hikari. Bigger mistake. He's deserved that for a long time. Plus I wanted to stab something."

They wandered a few minutes in silence. Then Bakura felt a tug on his sleeve. "I'm hungry, Baka-ra," Amane whined.

Bakura was about to tell her not to be silly; she was dead and therefore didn't need to eat; when his own stomach growled. He remembered that they were in living bodies that needed food just as much as the mortals around them. It had been a long time since he had felt properly hungry, and therefore hadn't recognized that feeling as hunger. When he had controlled Ryo, all Ryo's bodily needs and nerves were dulled (A/N That is the theory I thought up as to why Ryo always woke up starving and how Bakura could walk around fine with the stab wound while Ryo was writhing on the ground). He smiled as he remembered Ryo's constant complaints for him to eat once in a while. "Come on," he told her. "I know where there's a pretty good steak house that your brother likes."

Bakura started to walk towards the direction of the restaurant when Amane called, "Wait!" Bakura stopped and turned to face her, a puzzled look on his face. "It's just…Baka-ra…do you have any yen?"

"Ah…" He didn't. "One moment, please. Excuse me, sir! Could I ask you something?" He hailed a man wearing an expensive looking suit and clapped him warmly on the back. Amane couldn't hear what was being said but she saw Bakura steer the confused man into a back alley. Nothing happened for a few moments, then Bakura retuned alone, smiling and pocketing a decent handful of yen.

"Baka-ra," she groaned.

"That charming gentleman has kindly agreed to pay for our dinner!" he exclaimed, choking back laugher.

"Baka-ra, what did you do?" Amane asked, the disapprovement in her voice obvious.

Bakura stopped looking pleased with himself and sighed. "Look, he'll wake up in a few hours with one bitch of a headache, but he'll live. Besides, I only took enough to pay for the food; he had enough on him to buy twenty meals!"

Amane glared disapprovingly at him, but grudgingly followed.

Bakura smiled as they approached the steak house a few minutes later. He really liked this place. Ryo had taken him here once after he had forgotten to eat while in Ryo's body. Again.

They entered the restaurant and Bakura led Amane over to a table, where they sat across from each other. The waitress came over to take their order.

"I'll have an iced coffee and a steak, as raw and bloody as it comes here," Bakura told her, "and bring her a chocolate milk or something and a…what do you want, grilled cheese? Grilled cheese," he confirmed when she nodded.

"Can't I have an iced coffee, too?" she asked when the waitress had left.

"No," Bakura said without hesitation.

"But why?" she whined. "I'm eighteen!"

"Correction," he said, crossing his legs under the table. "You came out of your mother's womb eighteen years ago. You still have the body and mind of a seven year old, and the last thing I need is an already hyperactive child like you on caffeine."

So Amane did the one thing any child would do when denied something they want. She kicked Bakura very hard in the shin under the table.

"AUGH! FUCKING FUCKER FUCK!!" he yelled. Amane stuck her tongue out at him. "You little bitch…" he snarled, clutching his leg. _If this is what it's like to have kids, then I'm never gonna be a father,_ he thought bitterly.

Thankfully for Amane, who was unknowingly dangerously close to being throttled by the irate yami, the food arrived. Bakura grabbed his iced coffee and said very fast, "." Iced coffee was one of his favorite things of the modern world. Then the waitress placed his food in front of him and he forgot his smarting limb and his face lit up with glee at the huge, bloody, barely-cooked steak.

After Amane watched him tear the unfortunate steak apart with his teeth alone for a few minutes, she said out of the blue, "You'd make a good vampire."

Bakura inhaled his sip of coffee. After a minute of choking and coughing, he was able to get enough control of his gag reflex to splutter, "What!?"

"You've got big, sharp fangs, you like your meat raw and bloody, you like hurting people, you dress in black, and I bet you prefer night over day," she finished, crossing her arms.

"Hmm…now that you mention it, I _would_ make a good vampire. My hikari had better watch out, or I might bite him!" He grinned.

"Why do you always call him that?" she asked, putting her food down.

"Call who what?"

"Why do you always call my brother 'hikari'?"

"Because he is the lighter half of my dark soul," Bakura answered. "He is the angel and I am the demon, so to speak. There was a time when I considered him just a weakling whose body I was forced to inhabit. He was nothing more to me than my yadonushi, my host."

"Host?"

"Yes. To put it bluntly, my soul was stuck inside a piece of jewelry that he kept putting back on no adequately explored reason. From the first time he put it on, I was able to take over his mind and body at will, although it was much easier to maintain control when he was wearing the Ring."

"So why do you talk like you care about him if he was just your host?" she asked, completely unfazed at the knowledge that she was talking to a jewelry-inhabiting parasite.

"Because I do care about him. In the Battle City Tournament about two years back, Ryo's life was put in danger. I had allowed him control because of a deal I made, and he was already injured because of that deal. I couldn't stand to see him in so much pain, and I didn't want his life put at risk, so I told Malik to fuck our deal right out the window, and stepped in to take the blow for Ryo. I've tried my best to protect him since that day, and that day he became my hikari, instead of just my yadonushi."

They ate in silence for a time. Then Amane asked again, "So how are we going to find my brother?"

Bakura sighed and put down his fork. "I still don't know. That bastard father of yours gave us no leads! Domino isn't a small place; he could be anywhere!"

Amane looked thoughtful for a moment, and then her face brightened. "But he _did_ give us a lead!" When Bakura still looked puzzled, she sighed and continued, "Honestly, Baka-ra! Daddy said that he stayed at a friend's house until he could move in. So all we have to do is find the friend he stayed with!"

Bakura facepalmed himself for not thinking of that himself. "Fuck, fuck. Unless he got more friends (fuck) since I died, which I doubt, he was never a social butterfly, he'll be with the old crowd. Honda and Jou never trusted or even liked him, my fault entirely, so I doubt they'd let him stay with them, the bastards. I know for a fact that he'll stay with Anzu and Shizuka when Hell freezes over. So that just leaves Yugi. Yugi has a heart of gold, I bet he'd let Marik stay with him. Ryo and Yugi always got along better than the others, despite my existence. I'll bet my Ring that he stayed with Yugi."

"Excellent!" cried Amane. "So all we have to do is find this Yugi guy and we can see my brother!" She got up to leave.

"No," said Bakura. "I don't want to ask anyone anything."

"My God, what is it with men and asking for help?" She fished into his pocket for the yen and threw it down on the table. She then proceeded to grab the thief by the trenchcoat. Bakura was just able to grab his iced coffee before Amane dragged him out the door.

I don't own YuGiOh or any of the characters. And if I did, then I never would have sold it to 4Kids.

XD I was in Applebees waiting for my food when I write this. I just thought that was a little ironic that I was writing a restaurant scene in a restaurant. I had Mac & Cheese but Grilled Cheese if the shit.

I was listening to the soundtrack of Repo! The Genetic Opera when I typed this XD Now I have a headache from trying to hit high notes while singing along, I'm an alto. Oooh, "Infected" just came on. Now I'm going to ignore what I just said and try to sing along again XD

Bakura was originally supposed to agree with Amane and go find Yugi, but that line from Finding Nemo popped into my head out of nowhere where Dori says "What is it with men and asking for directions" and I had to put that in there.

Fucking Fucker Fuck is my favorite phrase. Also whenever I get my hands on an iced coffee I go "coffeecoffecoffeecoffeecoffee" so that's another one of my phrases. My friend Gabby says "Pockypockypockypockypocky" when she get's Pocky.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The game shop loomed in front of Bakura and Amane. Bakura grinned as he thought of how Yugi would react to seeing him. After all, he was supposed to be dead.

He knocked on the door and it opened almost immediately. "Sorry, we just closed up, please come back tomor…" Yugi trailed off and paled as he recognized the man on his doorstep.

"Hey, Yugi!" said Bakura. "Wow, you haven't grown much. You're what, eighteen? And I can still use the top of your head as an armrest! Not that I would, your hair would probably sever said arm, and I don't feel like maiming this new body just yet."

"B-Bakura!?" Yugi exclaimed.

"The one and only! Can we come in?"

"'We'?" Yugi asked, but opened the door wider nonetheless. He caught sight of Amane as she passed him and his eyes widened as he saw the white hair and brown eyes like the yami she had followed inside. "Bakura! You've done a lot of things with Ryo's body that I've tolerated, but if you got Ryo laid, I'll—!"

"What!?" Bakura cried in horror. It had never struck him that he and Amane looked so much alike that most people would think that they could only be related. "No, no, _Ra,_ no! She's not my daughter if that's what you're thinking! Ra, I never expected such thoughts like that from you! No, I've always let Ryo keep his virginity!"

Amane giggled at his flustered attitude. "You seem a little defensive, Baka-ra," she laughed.

Yugi gave a snort of laughter. Bakura fought the embarrassed blush that threatened to creep onto his face and rounded on Yugi. "What the hell are you laughing at!?" he yelled at Yugi.

"She calls you Baka-ra?" he asked between fits of laughter. "And you haven't dismembered her?"

"I've come close," Bakura snarled.

Yugi regained control of himself enough to ask, "So why are you even here? You're not here to kill me, are you? Because that would be really annoying."

"Now, now, Yugi," smiled Bakura, "I never said I didn't like you. I just hate that bastard you call your yami. No, I'm just here to ask you a few things. Then I'll be on my way."

"First, I have a question for you," said Yugi. "Who is this girl and why are you with her?"

"That's technically two questions, but since I'm nice I'll answer both," Bakura grinned. This resulted in a kick in the ankle from Amane. "Whore!"

"You're not nice at all, don't lie," she said as Bakura stood on one foot, swearing under his breath, and Yugi giggled.

"This abusive little girl is Amane, Ryo's twin sister," said Bakura, testing his weight on his throbbing ankle.

"But…that's impossible," said Yugi, biting his lower lip. "She's dead."

"And I'm not?" asked Bakura, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yes, you are. It's just that you have a nasty little habit of showing up again every time we think that you're _finally_ dead, so we're used to it."

"'Finally'? Gee, I feel so loved," said Bakura. "You'd better watch out, or the sarcasm will bite you."

"So why is Ryo's sister with you?" Yugi asked again.

"She wants to say goodbye to Ryo before she moves on, and I have to escort her since I knew him best out of everyone in the afterlife, understandably. The problem is that he's moved, and his bastard father was no help."

"I heard that he was stabbed; that was your doing, was it not?"

Bakura wondered for a split second how the news had spread so fast, then smirked and said, "Guilty as charged. But I won't tell anyone else that (so, naturally, Malik, Marik, Ryo, and Yami will know before long), and neither will you, if you value your left kidney. But that brings me back to my questions for you: Did Ryo stay with you after he walked out on his father and, if so, where is he living?"

Yugi shifted uncomfortably under Bakura's gaze. "Well, yes, he did stay with me, but…I have no idea where he is. We didn't go to the house while he was here, and he refused my help moving in. He's been a _lot_ more solitary since you died. As much as he claimed to hate you, I think he misses you. A lot. He certainly hasn't been the same since you left this world."

Bakura had a mental image of Ryo sitting all alone in the dark at the kitchen table, his head in his hands, wishing to feel Bakura's presence at the back of his mind once again. Bakura shook his head to clear the pitiful image from his mind. "Doesn't he have a cell phone or something that you could call?"

"He had one in his pocket a year ago, which you broke when you fell down the stairs. He's been saving up for this house for a long time. He said he didn't want to hurt his savings by buying a new cell."

"In case you didn't know, my soul was sucked out of my body. I didn't exactly choose to fall down the stairs," Bakura said, trying and failing to hide his disappointment that one more way of finding his hikari was gone, and it was his fault.

"Couldn't you open up a mind-link with Ryo?" asked Yugi.

"I could probably do that if I still had my Ring, but I don't. Besides, I'm not even sure if Ryo knows how to work a mind-link. I always stayed in my soul room when he was in control, and kept the link closed to prevent things from slipping over when I was in control," said Bakura, staring at his clasped hands. "He could feel my presence through it, I'm sure of that, but we never once talked through it. The only times we ever talked at all was when he burst into my soul room to complain about something or other I'd done."

"Wait…," said Yugi, his eyes lighting up as he remembered something. "Yesterday, Ryo called me to tell me that he had moved in safely. The message is still on the answering machine! Tomorrow we could go see Kaiba and see if he can trace it for us!" (A/N Yes, I know, if the number is right there they could always just call it and ask Ryo himself. But where's the fun in that?)

Bakura snorted at the mention of the reincarnation priest, but couldn't think of anything better. Hell, Kaiba could probably hire an army to track Ryo down if need be. "Why does it have to wait until tomorrow?" he almost whined. He realized that he wanted to see Ryo very much. He didn't want Ryo to be lonely, to miss him.

"Because it's almost ten o'clock at night," answered Yugi patiently. "You two can stay here tonight, but there's only one guest room…."

"I'll sleep on the couch," offered Bakura.

"Baka-ra, come with me," said Amane, tugging on his sleeve.

Bakura led her up to the guest room and sat on the end of the bed. Amane leaned against him and yawned, "Tell me how you ended up in a piece of jewelry."

"I'm not a very good storyteller," said Bakura, making to get up. Amane grabbed his sleeve and stared at him with very Ryo-like puppy dog eyes.

"Please?"

Bakura sighed. He'd always hated when Ryo pulled the puppy dog eyes on him, and now Amane was doing it, too. _Ra, I'm such a sucker for that look. It must run in the family. No, I can't give into this look. I won't give in. I won't give in. _

"Okay."

_I gave in._

He sat back down and started to tell the story, Amane leaning against him, listening silently, gasping quietly when he reached the part where his village was murdered. He kept talking until her slow, even breathing let him know that she was asleep.

Bakura got up slowly so he wouldn't wake her. He turned off the light and left the room. _She didn't interrupt me once. She's actually almost as cute as her brother when she's sleeping. Maybe she isn't so bad after all._

Bakura was sadly mistaken. The next morning he was awoken from his peaceful slumber on Yugi's couch by "Baaaaaaka-ra!" and Amane landing knees-first on his stomach.

_I would have been better off with Zorc,_ he thought, gasping and trying not to hurl.

"Oh, good, you're awake," said Yugi brightly, entering the living room.

Bakura shot him a venomous look, clutching his gut, as Yugi copied down the number on the answering machine. Bakura stood up, wincing at his bruised organs, and said in a slightly winded voice, "So are we ready to go?"

"Yep," said Yugi, slipping the number into his pocket.

The trip to the KaibaCorp building was uneventful. The secretary originally refused to let them in without an appointment, but Bakura growled at her and she let them right in.

Kaiba was typing behind his desk. He glanced up as the door opened. He minimized whatever he was working on, showing a picture of Jou as his desktop background.

"Should I ask why there is a child, a midget, and a dead man in my office?"

"We were wondering if you could find Ryo's new house—" started Yugi.

"That albino wimp?" Bakura growled at Kaiba and cracked his knuckles.

"—if all we have is his new phone number?" Yugi finished as though he'd never been interrupted.

"If I do this, will you leave me to work in peace?" All three nodded.

Kaiba pulled up Google and held out his hand for the number. He typed it in the search box and clicked the first link. "There you go," he said, turning the monitor so that all three could see the address, clear as day on the screen. "Now get the hell out of my office."

As soon as the office door closed, Amane screamed, "You both are idiots!!"

Bakura and Yugi both shuffled their feet and looked at the ground. Yugi mumbled something about "don't use the computer much" and Bakura was muttering, "didn't have Google three-thousand years ago."

"I have to go help grandpa open up the shop," said Yugi, checking his watch. "I'm late as is. Do you think you can find the house okay?"

Bakura nodded, and headed in the general direction of his hikari's house without another word.

I don't own YuGiOh, or any of the characters. If I did, I would never have sold it to 4Kids. I also don't own Google.

Wow I must REALLY like abusing 'Kura! I'm sorry 'Kura-kun!

Ironically, this is the only chapter that I didn't think out in advance, so I was winging the whole thing, and it's the longest. By one page in my notebook.

This chapter had a very unforseen complication in it. My pen ran out of ink. But I have written roughly 50 pages in my notebook. It's not a small notebook.

_Still_ listening to Repo!. I was listening to it when I uploaded chapter 4, I was listening to it as I wrote and typed this, and it's still playing. If you haven't heard any songs from it, go look them up on YouTube. Look up "Repo! Legal Assassin" That's the one that's playing now, that's one of my favorites.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Bakura approached the small single home where he knew his hikari was. He didn't have the mind-link with Ryo anymore, but he could feel Ryo's presence nearby. That and Ryo's car was in the driveway.

Bakura smirked as he walked up the path to the door. He knocked and felt his insides bubble with happiness as he heard his hikari's sweet angelic voice say, "Coming!" on the other side of the door.

Ryo opened the door, saw Bakura, let out a high-pitched shriek, and slammed the door shut again in Bakura's face. Bakura sighed and kicked a pebble.

"Ryo, open the door," he ordered with an exasperated sigh.

"No," said Ryo, his voice muffled by the door between them. Bakura could tell that he had his back against the door. He growled. He wasn't used to anyone, let alone his hikari, defying him.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," he said, knowing that Ryo was thinking of the three times he had plunged a sharp object into Ryo's body.

Ryo gave a mirthless laugh on the other side of the door. "Oh, yeah, that'll be a first!" he shouted, confirming Bakura's suspicions that that indeed had been what Ryo was thinking about.

"Ryo, open the damn door or I'll break it down!" Bakura all but screamed.

There was a silence and Bakura could almost hear the cogs turning in Ryo's brain on the other side of the door. Bakura heard the lock click and there was a much smugger silence. Bakura facepalmed himself. _If I had known that Hikari would grow a spine if I died, I would have been less careless,_ he thought with an internal growl.

"Ryo…please…open the effing door."

"NO! I don't want you back. I thought I was finally free of you and that damn Ring's curse!" Ryo's voice sounded shaky, as if he were crying.

"Please don't swear, Hikari. It doesn't suit you at all."

Ryo didn't answer. He waited a few minutes, waiting for something to happen. He could tell that Ryo still had his back pressed against the door. Bakura sighed. "Alright. I'm going to break the door in now."

"NO! O-okay, I'm coming out." Ryo still sounded like he was crying.

The lock clicked again and the door opened as slow as humanly possible. Ryo looked apprehensive, as though expecting Bakura to force the door all the way open in impatience. Bakura saw that he had been half right; Ryo wasn't crying, but scared and angry tears filled his eyes. He had a look on his face that told Bakura that Ryo was trying his best to deny to himself that this was really happening. The door was all the way open now, and Ryo was unconsciously rubbing his left upper arm, where Bakura knew a scar from the stab wound still lay.

"Heh. I knew you'd come around, Hikari."

The next thing Bakura registered was that his jaw was in excruciating pain, his lip was bleeding, and he was on the ground.

"I'm not your hikari anymore!!" Ryo spat, his fist still raised. (A/N Wow, the need to hurt Bakura must run in the family.)

Bakura pulled himself to his feet and wiped away the blood that was trickling down his chin. "There was a time when you wouldn't have dared to do that to me."

Even though it was said casually and unthreateningly, Ryo paled and stared at his still-raised fist in horror. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…," he said in a terrified whisper.

"Don't be. When you had the Ring I was nothing but a royal prick to you. I've had that coming for a long time. I'm proud of you, I really am. I'm glad you finally grew a spine." He put his hand to Ryo's shoulder and squeezed, like a father proud of something his son did. "BUT WHY THE HELL COULDN'T YOU HAVE WAITED ANOTHER BLOODY DAY TO DO SO!? HERE I AM TRYING TO DO SOMETHING NICE FOR YOU AND YOU UP AND MOVE THE DAY BEFORE I ARRIVE—Oof!"

Ryo had cried out in terror at Bakura's sudden screaming and instinctively lashed out, his fist catching Bakura's jaw in the same place. Amane giggled as he hit the ground again, his dignity gone. Ryo, who had been concentrating on his supposed-to-be-dead yami, hadn't noticed her.

"A-Amane?" he asked, his eyes filling up again, this time in disbelieving happiness. He closed his eyes and shook his head, tears leaking out from under his eyelids. "N-no! It's not true! It's some kind of cruel joke of Bakura's, it has to be!!"

"It isn't," said Bakura. "Trust me, I wouldn't have put up with her for twenty-four hours just for the sake of a joke."

"We never said a proper goodbye the day I went for a drive with mommy," Amane said, her eyes filling with happiness as well. "I came to say goodbye to you before I move on, Ryo." She ran up and threw her arms around Ryo's waist, crying now. Ryo knelt down and wrapped his arms around his sister, crying as well.

"You look just like you did the day you walked out the door," Ryo whispered into his sister's hair.

"And you look a lot older," Amane laughed into her brother's ear.

Bakura stared awkwardly at the scene, feeling very much like a third wheel. He noticed he was staring and looked at the sky. Then he felt a sharp kick in the back of the leg. He looked down to see Amane smiling up at him.

"Should I even ask what that was for?"

"To remember me by," she said. "Thank you for taking me to see my brother. It means a lot to both of us, Baka-ra."

Bakura was about to answer when she turned her back on him and gave Ryo one final hug. "Goodbye, Ryo, my brother. I can hear mommy calling me back to Heaven."

"Goodbye, Amane. I'm so happy. I wondered for eleven years whether you really were in a better place. I'm so happy to know that you are. Goodbye, my sister, and good luck in your next life."

Amane's body glowed gold as her soul was called back to Heaven. Her body began to dissolve from the feet up. "Good luck in this life, Ryo. And good luck to you, too, Baka-ra. Goodbye, Ryo. And goodbye…Bakura." She grinned at the two lookalikes as her body disappeared completely.

Ryo sniffed and wiped his eyes. The next thing Bakura knew, Ryo had glomped him and buried his wet face into his old yami's neck. "Thank you so, so much for this!"

"It was nothing," said Bakura, patting the younger boy awkwardly on the back, for he had started to cry again. He steered the boy inside and sat him at the kitchen table. _She called me by my name,_ thought Bakura, knowing that that had been Amane's final gift of appreciation to him.

"So do you have to leave now, too?" Ryo asked when he had stopped crying. Their mind-link no longer existed, but Bakura was sure he felt a wave of desperation from the boy. He didn't want to be left alone again.

Bakura got up and left the kitchen without a word. Ryo hung his head, tears filling his eyes again, giving off an aura of despair and loneliness so powerful that Bakura could feel it even without the mind-link. Bakura was leaving. He would be alone.

Which is why he looked up in shock when Bakura didn't go to the door, but instead jumped over the back of the couch. "The God's were kind enough to allow me to remain in this world in this body when the task of escorting your sister was done."

Ryo hesitantly walked over and sat on the other side of the couch. Bakura let out a friendly growl and leaned over, wrapping his arm around the whitenette's shoulders and pulling him closer. "I said I'd protect you. I can't do that if I'm not around. So what do you say? Care for a roommate?"

Ryo squealed, his face lighting up with glee, and buried his face in Bakura's side, nodding vigorously.

"One more thing. 'I'm not your hikari anymore.' I missed having you as my hikari, and I'm actually not lying this time. Will you give me a second chance, and let me be your yami again?"

Ryo snuggled against his yami. "Of course I will…Baka-ra." He grinned.

"Shut up, you. I never said that you can call me that, I'm not even sure why I let her call me that," Bakura replied, ginning as well. He held Ryo tighter and buried his face in his hikari's soft white hair.

I don't own YuGiOh, or any of the character. If I did, I never would have sold it to 4Kids.

Well, that's it then. It's over. I'll miss it, but I feel satisfied with the time and effort I spent on this.

God, though, I hate it. I read it again and it sucks. This was on DeviantART first and the only reason I put it here at all is because of the references to it in my later (and better) work.


End file.
